It's Halloween! We are one month into school. Yesterday was a day of making capes and wearing costumes and walking through a haunted house; I spent the morning cutting plastic bags into capes and comforting frightened second grade girls. "Heder, you go in haunted house with us?" one girl asked as she grabbed my hand. Actually, she probably was talking to me in Spanish, which I'm supposed to act like I don't understand. But I don't have the energy for that.

Some differences I noticed here in comparison with the U.S.'s celebrations are:

1. Students and teachers only dressed up as scary ghouls, ghosts, witches, vampires, etc. My Little Red Riding Hood costume was greeted with, "But that's not scary!" I'm glad I didn't buy the Wilma Flintstone costume at the store... In the U.S. people do dress up in scary costumes, but it seems like there's more of an emphasis on creatively coming up with a costume.

2. In America, kids and moms come to school with Tupperware containers full of fluorescent-colored frosting-laden cupcakes adorned with sprinkles and sugary pumpkins to be handed out to children who have already had too much sugar at 9AM. Or there's the box of Krispy Kreme ghost-themed doughnuts to pass around, with a side of candy corn. But no one brought anything here. There was even a very limited supply of candy, which I was thankful for, because those kids don't need any more sugar or energy. I think the lack of sweets probably has to do with the fact that it's not common for people to bake in their homes here, and a very American style Halloween hasn't been celebrated in Spain until recently.

Today teachers and students all had off of school, and we enjoyed our day off as normal by finishing up a TESOL certification course (so glad to be almost done!) and doing lots of housekeeping (strangely therapeutic).

And two final, important things:

1. A quote from Martin Luther, seeing as it is Reformation Day:

"This life therefore is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness, not health, but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it, the process is not yet finished, but it is going on, this is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified."